Journal of English for Academic Purposes最新文献

This paper delves into the overall use, grammatical patterns, and discourse-pragmatic functions of Prepositional Phrase-frames (PP-frames) utilized by Chinese EFL learners across Bachelor's theses, Master's theses, and Doctoral dissertations, in comparison with research articles (RAs) of Applied Linguistics. The analysis of these discontinuous formulaic language used in cross-sectional learner corpora and the RA corpus is pivotal for understanding the connection between academic literacy level and formulaic expressions in academic writing and for appreciating the development of phraseological competence among L1 Chinese writers as they navigate their way into the complexity of academic English. The findings unravel a growing tendency in the overall frequencies of use and a developmental trend in lexico-grammatical diversity and more genre- and discipline-specific functional characteristics, as Chinese EFL student writers advance through their academic journey from the undergraduate level to the doctoral level. A thorough analysis of functional dimensions of PP-frames in theses and dissertation writing reveals an increased level of functional complexity in the use of PP-frames for referential and discourse organizing functions. This study contributes to academic English instructions of PP-frames.

This study, drawing upon Halliday’s (1994) concept of the dual property of saying verbs, examines four types of reporting patterns of saying verbs in English research articles (RAs) within applied linguistics: (i) Sayer + V + reported clause, (ii) Sayer + V + noun phrase (NP), (iii) ‘Sayer’ (non-human) + V + reported clause, and (iv) Token + V + NP. It aims to analyze their frequency, distribution, and evaluative functions. An analysis of 50 RAs reveals the following: firstly, pattern (iii) is the most prevalent, while pattern (ii) is the least utilized. Secondly, the semantic function of each pattern is primarily subject-dependent. Patterns with non-human subjects (patterns (iii) and (iv)) tend to attract boosting verbs, indicating a higher assurance of the truth value of propositions. Conversely, pattern (i), featuring human subjects, is inclined toward hedging verbs, offering a less certain indication of the factual state of the writer’s interpretation. No distinct preference is observed in pattern (ii). These findings inform future research on the use of saying verbs in reporting patterns in academic writing and provide strategic instructions for teaching saying verbs in EAP classes.

Lexical bundles use in academic discourse has been explored across numerous dimensions including discipline, genre, register, student proficiency, and language, among others. These studies have resulted in claims about the nature of these different discourses or their authors, and they have been used in EAP instructional practices. Recent studies on methodological considerations in frequency-based lexical bundles research have pointed to variability in results that stem from changes in criteria used in lexical bundle extraction and corpus composition. Following this, the current study explores the impact of methodological variation in lexical bundle extraction from sets of research articles in Linguistics and Biology, with a focus on the extent of disciplinary variation uncovered in lexical bundles use and function. Experiments with varying frequency thresholds and range specifications as well as corpus composition show that results about lexical bundles use in different disciplinary discourses could be more sharply differentiated when certain variables are used, underscoring the variableness in results and the need for caution in interpreting the findings of lexical bundles research. This paper also evaluates claims made in previous lexical bundles studies using the findings from this study. Finally, previous pedagogical applications of lexical bundles research in academic discourse are discussed.

Graphical abstracts (GAs) have recently emerged as an add-on genre of experimental research articles (ERAs) in STEM fields. This study used Swales’ (1990, 2004) framework to analyze GAs’ move and step structures and investigated how they were influenced by ERAs’ take-home messages. Our corpus comprised 110 GAs from 55 high-impact journals across 11 STEM disciplines. Thirty-three specialist informants played a dominant role in identifying ERAs’ take-home messages, GAs’ IMRD moves, and the specific steps realizing those moves. Our findings revealed that GAs’ move and step structures, along with their frequently used moves and steps, are significantly influenced by ERAs’ three distinct types of take-home messages: (1) exploration of new phenomena and/or mechanisms, (2) introduction of new methodologies, and (3) development of new products. GAs tend to fulfill a highlight-to-attract purpose by focusing on ERAs’ main scientific contributions, in contrast to the verbal and video abstracts that fulfill a summarize-to-attract purpose by reproducing ERAs’ full IMRD structure. Our findings enrich the current understanding of GAs’ rhetorical structures and have practical implications for genre-based GA design and pedagogy.

Studies have examined how EFL students and teachers understand plagiarism and the extent to which they can recognize subtle forms of plagiarism through their knowledge of the international conventions of source use. However, the precise ways in which plagiarism is conceptualized and anti-plagiarism strategies are presented to students in EFL contexts have received surprisingly little research attention. In the study reported in this paper, we investigated how the issue of plagiarism is addressed in English academic writing (EAW) textbooks authored by English language specialists and published in China. We collected a sample of 55 EAW textbooks that included a discussion of plagiarism and extracted the relevant teaching materials into a focal dataset. A qualitative content analysis of this dataset revealed four prominent features: defining plagiarism by international standards, reasoning on the causes of plagiarism among Chinese students, a triadic approach based on textual examples, and a pedagogical spotlight on paraphrasing. We conclude the paper by highlighting the important roles of English teachers and EAW textbooks in anti-plagiarism education in China and elsewhere. Further research is needed to explore how to effectively promote anti-plagiarism education in classrooms.

Under the current trend of curriculum reform in higher education worldwide, many institutions have taken the initiative to develop English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) courses to cater for students' diverse needs for disciplinary learning and future professional practices. This paper illustrates the pedagogical innovations in an ESAP course to facilitate undergraduates’ disciplinary learning at an international university in Hong Kong. Based on the data collected from students and discipline teachers, we, as the course developers, reflected upon the opportunities and challenges in implementing the revamped ESAP course. Our reflections reveal the importance of promoting flipped learning and peer feedback practices in the ESAP classroom and interdisciplinary collaboration between ESAP course developers and discipline teachers. This paper will be of interest not only to ESAP teachers but also to discipline teachers who intend to promote best practices for effective disciplinary studies through English teaching and learning in higher education.

Investigating the linguistic realizations of rhetorical moves through lexical bundles is a research area that has recently gained momentum. However, the lack of a fully annotated corpus has impeded the full understanding of the relationship between formulaic sequences and their corresponding moves. Accordingly, this study addressed this lacuna by annotating 1000 Applied Linguistics research article (RA) introductions using a framework developed for the current study to identify bundles characterizing communicative moves that configure introductions. Following a manual move identification of RA introductions, lexical bundles were extracted using AntConc and manually refined. This was followed by systematic identification of their functions in their co-text. Results indicated that some lexical bundles (i.e., move-general) occur in several moves or steps, whereas other bundles (i.e., move-specific) perform distinct discursive functions within each move. In other words, the development of rhetorical moves and bundles within each move is intricately interwoven and collaboratively contributes to developing ideas in the analyzed section. Furthermore, the functional analyses indicated that text-oriented bundles emerged as a strong indicator of the communicative moves of RA introductions, which performed distinct functions within each move. Drawing on key pedagogical insights, findings can serve as an instructional framework for instructors, students, and novice writers.

L2 English learners are often reported to incorporate features of spoken language into their academic writing, blurring the lines between written and spoken genres. However, previous corpus-based studies have predominantly focused on L2 writing, leaving L2 speaking relatively unexplored. It is thus unclear whether learners lack genre awareness – as previously claimed – or if they indeed attempt to differentiate their language across genres, but lack ability to do so. This study explores lexical bundles in academic L2 English in parallel corpora of written and spoken data produced by the same learners, with the same prompts pertaining to argumentation. The findings show that learners employ phrasal/referential bundles, typical of academic prose, significantly more in their essays than in their speeches, where clausal and stance-expressing bundles are more prevalent. Notably, the students were found to employ identical bundles differently in argumentative essays and argumentative speeches produced in response to the same prompts. This finding implies that learners may have a better understanding of how to use formulaic language in both spoken and written genres than previously believed, suggesting that they are aware of genre distinctions, although other factors related to mode (e.g., the cognitive demands of speaking vs. writing) are likely to be involved as well. Furthermore, in comparison with previous findings on L1 bundles, these findings hint at the possibility of argumentative genre conventions unique to L2 learners, in which, broadly, L2 argumentative speech resembles an L1 conversational genre, while L2 argumentative essays seem to navigate a middle path between conversational and academic prose conventions.

In second language (L2) writing, the concept of genre has been an important construct. To date, multiple theories (sometimes referred to as schools or approaches) have driven a considerable amount of genre-based research and pedagogy, including: English for Specific Purposes (ESP), Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), and the New Rhetoric/Rhetorical Genre Studies (RGS) approach. Despite their growing prevalence, studies are needed that investigate the extent to which writing instructors adopt these theories in practice. This study addresses this issue by exploring 1) the genre-based theories that inform writing instructors’ pedagogies; 2) the different genres instructors teach in their classrooms; and 3) the types of pedagogical activities practitioners employ. To understand these phenomena, survey data (N = 141) and semi-structured interviews (n = 7) were collected from L2 English writing instructors. Findings show that ESP was the most well-known and adopted approach, followed by SFL and RGS. For written genres, most instructors reported teaching traditional, monomodal genres (e.g., argumentative essays), while digital multimodal genres were rare. This study discusses the implications of these findings, including developing teacher training, expanding pedagogies to include multimodal genres, and forging links between genres used in the classroom and those students will encounter in their lives.